I am not a liar.
I've done a lot of things wrong in my life, but I pride myself on not lying. So after I told you before that I shouldn't miss other updates, I want to be clear when I say I BELIEVED nothing would keep me from updating.
Unfortunately, there's one thing I forgot to take into account. As you all know, it's Summer, and with Summer comes the same line every single parent uses on their kids. We've all heard it before.
"It's nice outside."
And we all know what comes after "It's nice outside." Introvert hell.
Anyway, this chapter was supposed to be out yesterday, but I was busy doing other stuff, so I wasn't able to get to my computer. Also, I want to announce that from this point forward, this story will be updating on Mondays rather than Sundays.
That's all. Let's get back to the story. And before I forget, I'd like to apologize in advance for the large amounts of angst in this chapter.
There wasn't much to be said about what happened after everything went down. Nejire dried her tears and couldn't help but smile again once she realized Peter truly was okay. Peter himself took a seat next to her at the table and enjoyed his breakfast, while Otonashi and Kanade watched the scene from their side of the table.
The question was, what would happen now?
If people weren't talking about Spider-Man before, they were definitely talking about him now. How could they now be? In the first place, he was a vigilante that had managed to be on everybody's radar while also avoiding capture for weeks, which in itself was enough to thrust him into the public eye. The fact that he had allegedly defeated the number 2 hero in Japan only further increased his fame.
Kanade hadn't told Nejire yet, but there was already an article on her phone asking when All Might would step in to go after Spider-Man, as he was the only one left who could capture him.
Then there was Peter himself. His life as Spider-Man aside, he had his own problems. Sure, his life wasn't in danger anymore, but that wasn't exactly a major relief. It was obvious to Nejire that he was still hurting and it would probably be another day or two before he was back to full capacity.
That was if he laid low for a while, which Peter definitely would do. Knowing him, he'd be back out in the next few hours looking for people who needed his help, which wouldn't do any good for his condition.
Fully expecting this outcome, Nejire made the executive decision to stop the future events from taking place before they happened.
"Excuse me. I'll be right back." Nejire politely excused herself from the table, backing out of the dining room and creeping towards her bedroom.
Peter respected her, that was obvious. But Nejire doubted he would be willing to give up on looking out for people for even just a single day simply because she asked him to take a rest.
So, if asking wouldn't work, why not forced downtime?
Slowly closing the door behind her, Nejire walked over to the nightstand next to the bed where there was a gold and red spider insignia resting quietly.
"Um, Karen? Are you there? Can you hear me?" Nejire poked the device curiously after getting no response for a few seconds.
"Hello Ms. Hado. A pleasure to speak with you." Nejire jumped back in fright, slightly startled by the suddenness in which Karen spoke. The blue-haired girl had to take a few deep breaths to calm herself down, lightly clutching her heart all the while.
"U-uh, hi. I know it's been kind of a while since we last had a talk. I feel kind of bad about that, but I have a favor to ask."
"Of course Ms. Hado. What is it you require from me?" Karen asked in her usual polite voice.
"I… I need you to lock down the suit. I know Peter is like your master, or operator, or whatever he's called, but I can't let you say yes if he asks you to engage the suit. He's still hurt and needs to rest. So please, lock down the suit for at least a few days." Nejire didn't notice, but she had gradually begun to sink lower as she spoke. By now, she was practically kneeling in front of Karen, her head bowed as if the AI could see her.
"... I do agree with your analysis. Peter is not in any condition to continue his normal life for a brief time. I can lock what remains of the Iron Spider down, but be warned, if he uses an override command, I will be forced to disengage the lockdown and allow him use of the suit. Your best course of action would be to hide me from Peter for the time being."
Nejire breathed a sigh of relief. She had fully expected to hear that Karen wasn't able to do anything against Peter, such as denying him suit access. The solution wasn't perfect, but it was better than nothing.
"So, where should I hide you?" Nejire asked curiously, picking up the Iron Spider compartment tenderly.
"Peter has shown remarkable ingenuity and quick thinking in the past, and he is a very determined person. He will surely not stop until he has searched your entire home. The best advice I can provide is to simply hide me somewhere Peter would never dare to look."
The bluenette momentarily felt a sense of dread. There weren't any places she could think of that Peter would never 'dare' to look.
And then it hit her.
With a devilish grin, her eyes fell on her dresser, one specific drawer in particular.
A quiet, evil laugh escaping her lips, Nejire stalked over to her dresser, stopping a few inches away as she yanked open the drawer she was thinking of. The one place in the entire house Peter would never dare to check.
Her evil smile somehow growing larger, Nejire placed the Spider-shaped compartment in the dark confines of her underwear drawer.
"Find it now Peter." She smirked to herself as she closed the drawer, hiding the compartment from sight.
Her task completed, Nejire happily skipped out of her room and made her way back to the dining room. Her parents greeted her with waves while Peter simply sent a warm smile in her direction. Once she sat down though, his gentle smile turned to a somewhat serious look.
"Nejire… I need to apologize to you. It was my fault Endeavour was even at the mall in the first place. I ran from him without even thinking about where I was going and ended up putting you in serious danger."
"Peter, stop. Endeavour was the one being reckless, you were just trying to get away. Everything that happened was his fault. You don't have anything to apologize for." The smiling girl placed a hand on Peter's shoulder in a placating gesture, though this proved to be a mistake once Peter caught sight of her heavily bandaged shoulder.
"Don't say I have nothing to apologize for! That isn't true! Look at your arm! If I hadn't led Endeavour to the mall, you wouldn't be injured right now."
Nejire silently cursed herself for not hiding her burned arm better.
"Peter, please just stop it. I'm not any happier about getting hurt then you are, but it's not the worst thing to ever happen to me. I can always head to the school nurse and have Recovery Girl heal me. Besides, I wasn't the only one who got injured, was I? I see your jacket is still zipped up. Why don't you pull it down for me?" Nejire smirked lightly. She could be cunning when she needed to be, and this was what she needed to win this argument.
Peter immediately paled.
"Uh, wh-why should I? Why is my jacket important to you?" He weakly deflected.
Nejire just gave him an unimpressed look. When he still made no moves to obey her, she lunged forward and yanked his zipper down, gasping at the sight that greeted her. [1]
The short girl hadn't forgotten why the jacket was zipped up in the first place. After the fierce attack Peter had received from Endeavour, his entire chest area was singed so badly the flesh had turned black.
Okay, sure, his chest looked better now, but that was where the good news ended.
Better.
Granted, Peter's chest wasn't black anymore, which was definitely good. But it definitely wasn't a natural color either. His entire chest looked like a cooked turkey. It was dark brown and looked as if it still hurt like crazy. She could hear her parents gasp behind her when they caught sight of the injury.
Peter just looked away, suddenly feeling guilty.
"... I know that even if I ask, you'll just say you're fine." Nejire did her very best to remain calm and not start shouting. "But this is my point. We were both in trouble out there. If you want me to yell at you or get angry, then fine. I'll be angry at you. But if you're allowed to worry about me, I'm allowed to worry about you. So please, when I ask you what's wrong, tell me the truth. Don't shrug it off and act like everything is okay when it clearly isn't. Tell me the truth Peter, how are you really?"
Peter was silent after Nejire's verbal assault. Her voice had grown increasingly hard the longer she spoke, making it harder to meet her eyes. It was worse when she was done though.
The silence physically hurt, and now it wasn't just Nejire, but also her parents sending hard looks his way. The young boy didn't want them to worry and was searching for a way to play the whole thing off, but there was no point.
Anybody could tell that everything was not fine. The burn on his chest still hurt so much it made him want to cry.
Taking a deep breath, Peter raised his head and met his friend's gaze with as much confidence as he could muster.
"I'm hurt Nejire. I'm really, really hurt. I was telling the truth when I said I've survived worse, but that doesn't make this any more fun for me. This is worse than me getting hurt though. I was… I am scared." Nejire's eyes widened a little in surprise at Peter's words. "You shouldn't have been there. Nobody should have. It's my job to handle any issue that comes up as quickly as possible with as few injuries as possible, and yet one of my best friends got hurt when I was right there. Maybe I'm overreacting, but it's still scary." Peter looked down, his feeling of guilt even worse now.
Was he overreacting? Probably. Was her injury even that serious? Not really, no. Are the readers of this chapter all cringing from the huge amounts of angst in the last paragraph alone? Definitely. But everything he said was true.
Call him whatever you like, but Peter couldn't help but be worried for people. Maybe the situation wasn't entirely his fault, but he still had to take some of the blame. HE led Endeavour to the mall, HE took too long to get out and prevent damages to the building, and HE couldn't pull Nejire out before she got hurt.
Peter looked up again when he noticed Nejire extending an arm towards him. A look of confusion adorned his face, a look that quickly morphed to horror. Nejire's outstretched thumb and middle finger came together before flicking him viciously in the dead center of his burn.
"OW! WHY?!" Peter instantly recoiled, barely keeping himself from clutching his chest in pain, knowing that would only make it worse.
"Peter, for the third time, just stop." Nejire's voice was gentle but firm. "I won't tell you that you shouldn't feel like this. It's good that you do. My parents watched the news reports and even now, not a single person has been reported dead or even injured, and Endeavour's already been dug out of the rubble, though he's still unconscious. I'm happy you're this upset over me getting hurt, but please, calm down. I'm okay, really, and I know you will be too. You're Spider-Man, the totally awesome hero. There's no way you'll stay down for long."
Peter said nothing in response, giving Otonashi a chance to jump in for the first time.
"She's right. We watch you on the news, we see all the people you help only to be called a criminal in return. That's not an easy thing to do, doing good for others knowing you'll only get hate in return. You're a good person Peter, and you're an even better hero."
Kanade didn't join in, though she did put on a warm smile and gave an encouraging nod.
Peter felt… warm. It was a unique feeling he was experiencing at the moment.
Back home, his current situation was more or less normal. A small part of the public liked him while a big portion hated him thanks to Jameson. The difference was that there weren't many people he could talk to.
Sure, he had some Ned, but that was it, and even he was extremely recent. It was nice to have a single person to confide in about his life as a hero, but it was hard to compare one to half of New York.
It was different here. He had more people who knew, and while none of them could replace Ned, they didn't have to. They were here all the time, ready to congratulate him for the people he saved and the villains he captured. They cared for him, looked after him, made sure he felt safe and welcome.
Hearing these words now just hammered it in. They really did see him as a hero, a real hero. All the things they did for him, their high opinions of him… the Hado's weren't just his friends, they were like a second family.
So you'll have to excuse Peter for what he did next.
He could feel a rising pressure coming up behind his eyes. The dam was close to breaking, but he managed to keep it in check.
For all of 10 seconds.
Once again, Nejire pressed a hand on his uninjured shoulder, a smile so pure it shined aimed in his direction.
"It doesn't matter what everybody else thinks of you. You're a hero to us Peter."
That did it. Peter couldn't stop the few tears that came forward, but they didn't stop him from smiling back.
As gently as she could Nejire hugged him, careful not to touch the massive burn on his chest.
"To hell with it. I'm too happy to care about that right now."
Deciding to ignore the pain he would surely feel in a second, Peter wrapped his own arms around Nejire and pulled her close in a tight hug. Just as he expected, his chest instantaneously felt like it was lit on fire, but he didn't care. This was the best he'd felt in a long time, and he wasn't going to let his cripplingly painful injuries stop him from enjoying this.
At least not for long. Peter had a pretty high pain tolerance, but even he had limits. As much as he wanted to continue the hug, he had to let go soon or he'd pass out from the pain.
Returning to his seat, Peter gingerly wiped his tears away, taking a deep breath afterwards to steady himself.
"Thank you. It… it means a lot to hear this from you all. Really, thank you." Peter smiled gratefully. Suddenly, he felt himself grow slightly faint, all the while the room began to spin slightly. "But… could you do me a favor and not panic right now?"
The Hados were confused by Peter's final words, only for their confusion to shift to alarm when Peter slumped backwards, passing out in his chair and tipping backwards onto the ground. Nejire, however, was unaffected. She simply smiled and made her way over to Peter, helping him off the ground and slinging one of his arms around her shoulders.
"Nejire… are you sure we shouldn't take him to the hospital?" Kanade asked worriedly.
The bluenette did consider it. Peter was no longer wearing the compartment, so there was no danger of his identity being discovered. Even still, she shook her head no.
"He's Spider-Man, remember? Something like this won't keep him down for long. Peter's invincible."
Not waiting for a response, Nejire turned towards the hall and carried Peter back to her room. The short girl laid her friend down gently onto the bed, pulling the covers back over him.
"Rest up Peter. When you're all better, you can go right back to helping people, like you did before." Taking up her spot in the chair next to the bed, Nejire laid her head next to Peter's and closed her eyes, feeling herself drift off into sleep.
If you expected a longer chapter, I already know what I'm doing next and there was no good place to end that chapter without it getting really long if I tried to combine them. But don't worry, no matter what, the next chapter will definitely be out next Monday. Oh, and I'd like to apologize for the… ridiculous amounts of angst in this chapter. We're done with that, I promise.
[1]: Yeah, only after finishing this chapter did I realize how "When he still made no moves to obey her, she lunged forward and yanked his zipper down, gasping at the sight that greeted her," sounds when taken out of context. I apologize to all the good Christian children out there.
(This is obviously a joke, please don't take it seriously).
On an unrelated note, I'd like to ask a question that will probably lose me half my followers.
What are your opinions on RWBY?
I know that nowadays RWBY is like AJR. Everybody either seems to absolutely love it or completely hate everything about it.
Personally, I sit somewhere in between. I'll be the first to admit that RWBY definitely isn't perfect. It's got a pretty predictable plot, really stupidly timed deaths, and…"not great" writing, but I don't think it's as bad as most people claim it is. The show isn't my favorite or anything, but I do like it enough that I'll rewatch it every now and then and genuinely enjoy it.
I'm not looking for huge paragraphs on why you think it's bad/good, I just want to know what you think. That's all.
Thanks for reading and remember to leave a review.
Aren signing off.